Tom Humphriesreflects on Jack O'Connor's decision to once again take on the task of guiding the fortunes of Kerry's senior footballers

YOU MAY be right. I may be crazy.

But it just might be a lu-na-tic you're looking for.

Billy Joel.

It's county final weekend in Kerry and Jack O'Connor finds himself where he never thought he would be again, backing into the limelight. In a week which could bring him a significant managerial success if he guides his young Kerins O'Rahilly side to a county title, he has seen the klieg lights pick out two of his young stars who are heading to Australia briefly (it is hoped) and then settle on himself as reaction to his appointment for a second stint as Kerry manager percolates through the county.

There's lot to admire about Jack O'Connor, but his bravery is his outstanding characteristic. The job of being Kerry boss is one of those bucking bronco affairs which very few people wish to get back up on when they have been thrown off once.

To take the reins at a time when several senior players are slowing, when Tyrone have once again issued an emphatic slap down and when Cork are resolutely getting their act together would be an act of valour in any circumstance.

Climbing on again just two years after departing the ring and having left behind a memoir, more widely misquoted and misread than its sales suggested it could ever be, is a singularly courageous act however. It would have been much easier, having departed as a success and having seen the excitement which his book caused subside, to leave things lie and enjoy some success on the club circuit or cash in the chips with another county. Instead Jack's back and ready to be shot at. The slings and arrows won't be idle for long.

As a consummate outsider, from the backwoods of the least populous and least celebrated region of the county, a man from outside the fold of the golden generation, Jack's first coming as Kerry manager was in some ways a struggle to prove himself to the blue bloods who looked askance at his appointment from the start.

Back in 2004 when he shoved the dressingroom door open rather diffidently he found a team which the Kerry public had lost faith in. If the county board were willing to try their luck with a "cabóg from Dromid" the team he found himself in charge of were willing to place their faith in a man who was as hungry for success and respect as they were.

Three successive All-Ireland appearances followed. Armagh were slain. The body of a well- functioning healthy team was handed over to Pat O'Shea. The scythe-bearing shadow of Mickey Harte seemed to have receded. Another All-Ireland was won immediately.

What gets handed back is a collective which is almost inevitably showing signs of depreciation, wear and tear and the changes which prolonged success makes to a team. And they come back on the tumbrel after a defeat which Kerry as a county hated having to endure.

The challenges are different this time and so too is O'Connor.

Kerry are on the back foot still in terms of their relationship with Tyrone but the team have had a long and wearying run in terms of consecutive All-Ireland final appearances, the dressingroom is filled with strong and intelligent characters who know how to flex their own muscles.

O'Connor's book, Keys to the Kingdom is what he wanted it to be at the time. An X-ray. Having finished a three-year stint which consumed him totally he wanted a snapshot of his brain while it was still filled with the energy and madness that the job required.

It wasn't a balancing act or an exercise in diplomacy , it was an attempt to tell things the way he felt them at the time. It wasn't the Satanic Verses and if feelings were ruffled no fatwahs were issued either.

Inevitably, in the places where the book departed from the standards of bland politeness required of exiting managers or retiring players, people pulled at the threads and decided that O'Connor's bracing honesty was wrapped in common treachery.

In fact the book could have been a lot more frank. Talking everything through was a cathartic act at the time and in the end the book when read as a whole, is intended as the story of a group of people drawn close by events, the story of what they went through, good and bad, for three years to get to where they wanted to be.

Dropping people, losing players, losing games caused O'Connor more pain than it causes most. The energies spent in winning All-Irelands, holding such a strong group together and constantly feeling the need to prove himself were the stuff of love affair not treachery.

The person who comes in for the most criticism in Jack O'Connor's book is Jack O'Connor. Any problems cited with other people are done so in the context of showing how things worked out when as a group they pulled together.

If the book felt to its author like anything different he wouldn't be pushing the same dressingroom door open again knowing that on both sides of that door lines and quotes from those pages will be taken and hurled at him when the going gets tough.

But he is walking back in and the suspense has the quality of a soap opera to it. The personnel will differ from those he worked with last, mainly in the shape of the young guns from Strand Road.

The man they look back at is likely to be more certain than the one who walked through the door one winter's night several years ago. Two All-Irelands and bringing a Tralee team containing scions of great Kerry footballing families like the Walshs, the Morans and the Dowlings have made him more certain of the ground beneath his feet.

The needs of the county are clear cut. Tyrone need to be avenged, for once and for all. The Down teams of the 60s seemed always to pop their heads up when Kerry were at their most vulnerable and the score created by their temerity has gone unsettled. This Kerry side and O'Connor are still linked by one thing. A driving need to hammer home their claims to greatness. Tyrone's three All-Irelands will always rankle and will always subtract from the substance of their own legacy otherwise.

Anybody who thinks the Kerry dressingroom will be turning into a reading group devoted to parsing and interpreting the words of O'Connor know neither O'Connor or the group of players he resumes command of. It's a small room filled with big boys and big intellects and big egos. Together they represent a county which makes big demands. Any other problems? You suck them up for the green and gold jersey.

Jack is back. The next episodes will be compulsive viewing.